Today is going to be half journal, half blog post, half letter because…well, because that’s kindof how it should be, neh?
There’s talk of Edwards being offered the AG spot for both current candidates. That would actually be fascinating and it’d be an AG going after white collar crime since the heydays of the trustbusters. Instead of going after our rights and finding ways to parse the word “torture” into something very innocuous, the AG would probably be reminiscent of RFK or maybe Spitzer in NY.
One of my favorite shows on the radio/podcast world is WNYC’s RadioLab. On January 29, 2008, they presented a webisode, Salle Des Departs, representing a snippet of their upcoming season. This quick clip was about a hospital outside of Paris. In the Hospital Raymond Poincare in Garches, about 450 bodies a year pass through their halls due to road related deaths. This is the place where families come to see the recently deceased for the first time. As you can no doubt imagine, this is probably one of the most difficult times in their lives and the circumstances make it so much worse: these are highway/road related deaths which means that these individuals were either heading to Paris or leaving it, which makes it that much more likely that family had either just said goodbye or were expecting them to arrive soon.
And so, according to this BBC4 article, the Hospital is building a Salle des Departs, a place where families can in, as much as can be granted, peace and quiet, say goodbye to their loved ones.
The result, designed by the Italian Ettore Spalletti, is an ethereal and haunting room that floats between our world and the next with musical accompaniment that is reminiscent of music coming from our dreams. One of the composers, David Long, specifically wanted the music to express a feeling of confusion, sadness, and rage while also deliberately composing the piece that could not be performed by human beings, or, as Long puts it, “It’s supposed to be something that’s past the ability of human beings to play.” The vocals in the background have no end and last a full 18 minutes without a breath. As if the angels themselves were singing.
RadioLab’s Epsiode, Salle des Departs
[Sadly, Real Player is required]